Pulse of the GTA Study
Our Pulse of the GTA study has surpassed 700 in-depth interviews with family business leaders using a novel approach in which undergraduate students conduct interviews, according to rigorous protocols, as part of their culminating projects.
Over 700 confidential surveys completed to date
High-quality family business data are scarce — our study mobilizes a large team of trained students.
Decision-ready insights
With embedded reliability checks, we deliver decision-ready insights across governance, succession intent and planning, challenges, GTA attributes and more.
Valuable family business data
All data is anonymous and follows strict Toronto Metropolitan University Research Ethics Board (REB) protocols.
Research areas include:
Succession intentions and actual succession plans contemplated, in-progress and completed
Perceptions of family business challenges and benefits
Governance structures and documents for the family, business and owners
Value of being located in the Greater Toronto Area
Innovating in the classroom
Enabling the students to learn outside the classroom through real-life experiences such as interviewing family business leaders, aka “experiential learning”, has been proven to be incredibly effective for students to absorb concepts and appeal to diverse groups of learners. This experiential learning value was the initial rationale for the initiative. Now the FBI is taking the value one step further by analyzing the skills the students are learning as they arrange, conduct and analyze the interviews. By better understanding the skills being enhanced, the value of the project can be further increased. This initiative is now the subject of a new joint study between the FBI and the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) at TMU and has received Research Ethics Board approval.
Preliminary findings are already available
Preliminary findings were presented at the Canadian Council of Small Business and Entrepreneurship 2025 Conference, as well as at a webinar as part of a three-part series co-hosted by the Diversity Institute and the Family Business Institute.
